Ford had just rolled out a new model with traditional
performance features like High Output V-8, four-speed
manual transmission, and rear-wheel drive. In a world
suddenly flush with weak front-wheel-drive four-bangers
and homely econo-boxes, the new Mustang GT hit the
spot. Kim was one of those original GT buyers.
“It was just what I was looking for: fast, handled like
a dream, and it was some kind of eye-catcher — going
down the road, people waving at me as if I were riding a
Harley. ‘Man I gotta have this one,’ I said to myself.”
The car Kim was driving was black with T-tops, black
interior, and four-speed transmission. Black was one
of only three colors available for the GT, the other two
being Medium Red and Silver Metallic.
Though he was still out on the test drive, his
imagination was already miles away.
“In my mind, I was cruising down the boulevard at
Myrtle Beach with the wind blowing in my hair,” Kim
remembers. “The chicks are gonna love this.”
Kim was hooked, and there was no point denying it.
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“I finished up the test drive, and on August 17, 1982,
signed the papers.”
One more jet-black GT was on the streets, getting
noticed and — after eight years of Mustang IIs and
underpowered but smog-compliant 255 V-8s, straight
sixes, and 2.3 four-cylinders — rebuilding popular
opinion about what the Mustang was all about.
Kim, a young guy with a serious Mustang affection,
put thousands of miles on it and became a regular at the
beach.
“I made many trips to that fun-in-the-sun paradise,” he
says with a smile. Being young and kicking up your heels
in a new Mustang. Is there anything more American?
“It was kind of funny going down the road at times.
Sometimes people thought I was the Highway Patrol. It
was not funny, though, when the real Highway Patrol
realized I was not one of them. The first lesson I learned
is that you can’t outrun a Motorola radio.”
OK, we won’t ask. But if it sounds like Kim had a blast
in his first-year, Boss-Is-Back Mustang GT, he did.